Privacy Policy

valebird.co.uk

1. Legal Framework & Data Controller

This website (valebird.co.uk) is owned and operated by Jason Sefton, trading as Valebird ("the Business"). For the purposes of the UK Data Protection Act and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Business acts as the Data Controller of your personal data. We are committed to ensuring the absolute confidentiality, security, and lawful processing of all information collected from our website visitors, clients, and any incidental data captured during our aerial operations.

2. Types of Information We Collect

We collect and process three distinct categories of data to fulfill our services securely:

• Technical Device Information (Collected Automatically): When you visit valebird.co.uk, our servers automatically collect basic digital footprints from your device. This includes details regarding your web browser type, IP address, approximate time zone, and information about the specific web pages you view, what localized search terms referred you to our site, and how you interact with our online interface.

• Client Contact Information (Provided Voluntarily): To generate precise fixed-price quotes and schedule inspections, you voluntarily provide us with personal information through our contact forms. This data includes your first name, last name, phone number, email address, billing address, and the specific geographic postcode/address of the property requiring an aerial inspection.

• Aerial Inspection Imagery & Background Data (Captured On-Site): During our manual drone inspection flights, our high-resolution cameras capture visual data of roofing structures. While our flights are strictly targeted to the specific asset paid for by our client, our sensors may incidentally capture background data. This can include adjacent neighboring rooftops, private garden boundaries, or localized vehicle registration plates visible from the air. Under UK law, this incidental imagery constitutes personal data.

3. Why We Process Your Data & Our Legal Basis

We process your personal information strictly under the following lawful baselines permitted by the UK GDPR:

• Contractual Necessity: To perform site safety screenings, generate custom price calculations, and deliver your organized high-resolution inspection photo folders.

• Legitimate Interests: To monitor website performance, detect fraudulent form submissions, protect our digital infrastructure from malicious cyber attacks, and maintain our internal operational safety.

• Public and Neighbor Privacy Protection: To process, organize, and filter our aerial photography files safely before customer delivery.

4. Drone Specific Data Processing & Neighbor Privacy

Because Valebird operates commercial drone equipment across residential and commercial areas in Cheshire, we enforce strict privacy controls:

• Targeted Data Capture: Our pilot utilizes precise, targeted manual camera angles focusing exclusively on the specific tiles, chimneys, and gutters of the client's property.

• Incidental Data Filtering: Any accidental or unavoidable capture of adjacent third-party personal data (such as a neighbor’s face or vehicle license plate) is classified as non-target data. We systematically blur, crop, obscure, or permanently delete this data during file organization at our office before any digital link is delivered to the client.

• 30-Day Storage Boundary: In accordance with our Services Agreement, all finished inspection data is stored securely on our encrypted local or cloud servers for a maximum of 30 calendar days following delivery, after which the files are permanently deleted to protect consumer privacy.

5. Your Legal Rights Under UK GDPR

If you are a resident of the United Kingdom, you possess comprehensive statutory rights regarding your personal data:

• The right to be informed clearly about how your data is used.

• The right of access to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.

• The right to rectification to correct inaccurate or incomplete details.

• The right to erasure ("the right to be forgotten") to request that we delete your data.

• The right to restrict or object to specific data processing pathways.

• The right to data portability.

• The right to lodge an official complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us directly via email at info@valebird.co.uk.

6. Third-Party Links & Data Transfers

Our website may feature hyperlinks to external authoritative sites (such as the Civil Aviation Authority). We hold zero control over, and accept no responsibility for, the independent privacy practices or tracking cookies of external websites. Additionally, our website infrastructure is hosted through secured platforms where technical data processing may occasionally occur via encrypted pipelines in data centers located outside the UK, adhering strictly to approved international data protection transfer mechanisms.

7. Information Security Protocols

We maintain professional administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to shield your data from unauthorized access, loss, or disclosure. Contact form data is handled via encrypted communication layers, and raw flight imagery is stored on secure, password-protected hardware. However, please acknowledge that no digital transmission over the internet or wireless network can ever be guaranteed as 100% secure.

8. Mandatory Legal Disclosure

We will only disclose your personal or captured flight data to third parties without your consent if explicitly required or permitted to do so by English law, such as to comply with a valid judicial subpoena, to cooperate with an official investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect public safety or investigate fraudulent claims.

9. Contact Details

For any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, or to submit a formal request concerning your individual personal data rights, please contact the Business directly at:
Email: info@valebird.co.uk